Five Ways Carth and Revan Weren't Reunited
by HanuuEshe
Summary: Pretty much what the title says.
1. Chapter One

Five Ways Carth and Revan Weren't Reunited:

(1 Happily)

The Ebon Hawk had docked ten minutes ago; eight minutes ago he'd been notified, seven minutes ago he'd sent word to Atton Rand on Datooine, and five minutes ago he'd been _there_, waiting for the docking procedures to finish up.

The Exile was the first to emerge; she caught his eye and pulled a face of extreme disgust.

"Revan's just as big a bitch as she ever was," she informed him. It seemed impossible for her not to smile fondly as she said it.

"Atton still makes me want to shoot myself," he replied with a straight face. Her grin widened.

"Good to know," she said, before sticking her head back in the Hawk and shouting "Oy, Revan! Get out here and get it over with!"

"I'm coming! I'm coming!" she yelled back, and Carth felt his stomach lurch as he heard her voice. "If you'd just gotten me up when we were an hour away from Citadel like I'd asked…"

She stopped just short of loading ramp, looking worn but triumphant.

"Hey!" he said, stupidly.

"Hey yourself," she replied. There was a beat of silence. Then two.

"Eshe tells me you made Admiral," she said finally.

"Yeah. Yeah, about two years ago."

There was another, even longer, more awkward silence.

"Ohforcryinoutloud!" The Exile exclaimed suddenly. "I did not listen to _his_ romantic tale of woe, and then suffer through _your_ pining only to have you two be too stubborn to properly reunite! Go! Embrace! Kiss! Now!"

Revan glared at her companion. "Eshe-" she began, but didn't have a chance to finish because Carth had bounded up the loading ramp and was kissing her.

There was another silence, but this time Carth couldn't hear it over the blood pounding through his ears.

"There you go," The exile said, satisfied, as they broke apart. "Now, I assume I don't have to explain the mechanics of what comes next?"

"I think we can figure it out," Revan deadpanned, giving his hand a squeeze.

"Good," she replied. "I'll just go let Atton and the gang know I'm alive, then."

And with that, she sauntered out of the room, leaving behind one happily reunited couple.


	2. Chapter Two

Five Ways Carth and Revan Weren't Reunited:

(2 Fractured)

It had taken them several months to track down Revan; even after they had managed to unlock the navicomputer, they still didn't know where she was going, only where she had been. It hadn't been easy, but they'd found her.

What was left of her.

"Stay away from me!" Revan shrieked, backing up against the wall. "You're not real!"

"Yes, I am!" Carth replied for the umpteenth time, knowing that it was probably useless, futile. Once she put her mind to something, be it becoming a Jedi, taking off for parts unknown, or deciding that he was a darkside-energy induced hallucination. "Revan, it's me, I'm here, and I know it's not what you were expecting…"

"You- he promised. He'd stay with the Republic- he promised. He has to be there. You're not real. He's going to be there, fighting off the invasion when it comes. He promised…"

Carth made to put his hand on her shoulder; she flinched away. "Revan…" he began, but she cut him off.

"Stay away from me!" she yelled again. "Stay away!"

"Onasi," the Exile called from the cockpit. "Could you come up here for a second?"

"Coming," he called back, then turned to Revan, you was still braced against the wall with a petrified look on her face. "I'll be back," he promised gently.

"Stay away," she pleaded.

He entered the cockpit, and the Exile turned around, greeting him with mournful eyes. For a long while, nothing was said.

"You know, I thought I'd prepared myself for anything," he began, trying to ignore the way his voice was cracking. "New scars, her having fallen, only being able to bring back her body…"

"Neither one of us thought this could happen," she interrupted him. "But it did, and now we have to deal with it."

"You want us to leave you here," he confirmed.

"Revan can't stay here. You shouldn't have even come along in the first place." She smiled, slightly. "What sort of Admiral takes leave to stow away on a smuggling ship?"

"Me."

"I can see why she likes you." She frowned. "I need to find out more about that invasion Revan keeps babbling about. I also need to find out what she was doing to prevent it, if such a thing is possible."

"But you sure you just want us to leave you here. Without a ship, or even the droids?"

"Yes. I won't need them; they can't fight the enemies I'll have to face here. And they belong to her anyway." She stood, and gabbed the pack at her feet; medkits, stims, food, water, and all the other necessary tools of survival inside. "See you Onasi. Take care of her; there's a chance that once she gets away from here, her condition will improve."

He doubted that very much, but nodded anyway.

The Exile walking down the loading ramp, leaving behind two fractured souls


	3. Chapter Three

1Five Ways Carth and Revan Weren't Reunited

(3 Betrayal)

It didn't really surprise him when the Republic was attacked. After all, the blonde kid had called just a few days early to inform him of the Exile's death, and he respected that woman enough to know she wouldn't have died quick or easy.

Revan would have been the only one to do it- which meant Revan was on the darkside, and the one attacking the Republic now.

He didn't care, really; he may have helped out over Citadel, but that's more a credit to her orders not to let the Republic crumble, if he could help it, than anything else. He nearly beat them once; he was confidant that with Revan at the helm he could utterly destroy them this time around.

His orders were to prepare for her return. Now they were to fight, and fight he did.

He was surprised when his first battle is over Taris, against Mission- he'd lost track of _Ad'ika_ after all that nonsense from the Star Forge died down and Revan passed the Helm on to him, and somehow managed to forget she would be a full adult even by the Republic's stunted standards by now. She was a good fighter, too; he lost nearly half his ships, and she'd managed to land boarding parties on his flagship before her own exploded.

He was also surprised by how well the fighting was done by the Republic; they won a few battles as they were destroyed, rather than rolling over and whimpering like they did the first time around. But then again, he knew who was leading them, and Onasi might be a lot of things, but a fool and a coward he was not.

They meet in battle once or twice; as the Core Worlds fall one by one, the Republic begins to switch over to guerilla tactics, hitting them hard and fast and then getting out before they could have the favor returned, and he recognized the triumphant cries of "Down you go!" whenever a Mandalorian ship exploded, but he never told Revan. She'd made her feelings on that particular subject painfully clear. The two ex-lovers didn't meet, to his knowledge, until that final battle over Corescant.

"Revan," Onasi hailed her. "Can I have a word with you?"

"Go ahead," she allowed.

For a moment, they simply stared at each other's holographic forms, before Onasi asked another stupid question. "Why?"

"It's necessary."

"C'mon, Revan. After all we've been through, I think you owe me a better answer than that."

"I'd be happy to give you one. But you'd need to surrender first."

"You'd take over Corescant and execute the Senate if I did."

"Well, that is the general idea. There's no use taking over the Republic if I'm going to leave its seat of government in power."

Onasi smiled bitterly. "Seriously, though- why?"

She leaned forwards in the captain's seat, the first sign of passion he'd seen in her in a long time. "Because when you die, Carth, you aren't going to die defending democracy or freedom or any of that other crap you place in such high esteem. You're going to die defending a corrupt bureaucracy that is being manipulated into a tool of the True Sith. Unless, of course, you surrender."

Onasi looked shocked for a moment, but recovered quickly. "Sorry, beautiful, it's not going to happen. I'm just not built that way."

"Sounds like an excuse to me."

"Maybe it is," he shrugged, and then said, seriously. "I know the Republic isn't perfect, Revan. I know that- give me some credit. But there has to be an alternative to destroying it. There has to be another way."

"Carth, do you really think that if that were the case I would be here?" she sighed. "Look, you can't win. We have you out-manned, out-gunned, out-stripped, out-maneuvered… out everything. Just surrender. Give up. I'd rather do this with a minimum amount of destruction."

"We're not going down without a fight," Carth insisted. "We have our orders."

Revan froze for a moment, then quirked a small, hollow smile. She was even less a fool than Onasi was; soldiers only said they were just following orders when they didn't really believe in what they were doing- or were acting under duress. "I see. Let's make it look good then."

"Yes. Let's."

They never found out what sort of hold the Sith had found over Onasi. Dustil was noticeably absent from the list of survivors of the great battle the followed, and Mandalore had his suspicions about that, but was careful to never voice them. But that fateful, glorious, night was notable for two reason. Not only was it the day the Republic was destroyed, but it was the only space battle to date where to civilians were killed by falling debris.


End file.
